The Death of the Secularization: A Rhetorical Analysis of Stark's Thesis Joshua Tran College

In his paper “Secularization, R.I.P.,” Rodney Stark argues that the secularization thesis has been wholly disproven. This thesis, the notion that religious beliefs would gradually disappear as modernization progressed, is based on several assumptions: that levels of religiosity are reciprocal to the trends of modernization; the progression of science inexplicably results in the decline and eventual extinction of religion; once a state reaches secularization, reversion to religiosity is impossible; and secularization concerns all religions. Stark refutes these assumptions by highlighting their flaws, ultimately arguing for the rejection of the secularization thesis

The first assumption states that religiosity is reciprocal to the trends of modernization. It believes that a nation would initially have high levels of religious participation, but as it modernizes, religious participation will decline until it disappears. The political scientist Alexis de Tocqueville disagreed, saying, “facts by no means accord with [the secularization] theory” because developed nations like the United States have remained religious despite the onset of modernization (Stark 254). This is supported when Stark exposits the myth of Europe’s “Golden Age...